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No, I think the tobacco companies are worried about losing profits so are doing everything they can think of to try and prevent plain packaging. It wouldn't matter if they thought it was fair, they'd still react in the same way.

wkurzius writes "The new Google phone, the Nexus One, is rumored to cost $530 unlocked and will work on any GSM network. A subsidized version is also available for $180 and will get you a T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan for 2-years with a $350 termination fee. Access to the phone is supposed to be invite only at first, with January 5th being the supposed release date."

Oracle Goddess writes "According to the US National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people. Previously schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be two separate conditions, but the new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or the other of the two illnesses."

There are many initiatives to bring tech to developing areas of the globe; things like OLPC, Geekcorps, and UN programs. One new approach from SolarNetOne strives to allow users in those developing areas to have access to an internet connection without having to depend on unreliable infrastructure. "Each SolarNetOne kit is a self-powered communications network. Energy is produced from a solar array sized to each locale's latitude and predominant weather conditions. The generated power is stored in a substantial battery array, and circuit breakers and electronics protect the gear from overloads and other perturbations. A basic kit includes five 'seats,' implemented as thin clients connected through a LAN to a central server. The networking gear also includes a long-range, omnidirectional WiFi access point, and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device. Each kit also includes all the cables and wires required to assemble the system, so few additional materials are required for an installation."

An anonymous reader writes "Australia's biggest ISP Bigpond, part of the largest telco Telstra, has removed all OpenOffice.org downloads from their free downloads mirror Bigpond Files Library. The Library main page indicates that the reason for this was to promote their new Java-based hosted office suite Bigpond Office, adding that "BigPond has launched a number of new applications that provide similar functionality to some existing application files in the file library and therefore those files have been removed".
With the OO.o files no longer available as free downloads, Bigpond OO.o users will be forced to download from other locations and have those downloads count against their quota. Bigpond's quotas are among the most severe in the world according to a recent OECD report (30 KB XLS) , and with typical OO.o downloads amounting to over half the quota of Bigpond's least expensive (and most popular) plan, download costs of about AUS$15 for OO.O are possible."